Self-generated mobility via locomotion is a key for the cognitive, social and motor development of young infants and certain children with special needs. Exploration of the world is one key to the rapid, significant advancement in cognitive, perceptual and motor abilities characteristic of early infancy. Two categories of skills provide the vehicle for physical exploration. The first to emerge is the ability to independently explore the local environment through reaching and grasping. The second is the ability to independently explore distant environments through locomotion.
Over the first 8 months of postnatal life, typically developing infants gain the ability to reach for and grasp objects within their local environment. Such local exploration has been associated with rapid advances in social, cognitive, perceptual, and motor development. Exploration of the world by infants this age ultimately becomes limited by their inability to independently travel over distances. Consequently, these infants spend most of their time sitting and exploring the local environment that is within reach. For further exploration, caregivers must bring objects or playmates to them, or vice versa.
Consequently, there exists a need for a device that provides the ability for such children to independently explore their world.